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THE HALLS OF IVY
The Halls of Ivy was an NBC radio sitcom that ran from 1949 - 1952. It was created by Fibber McGee and Molly co-creator/writer Don Quinn before being adapted into a CBS television comedy (1954-55) produced by ITC Entertainment and Television Programs of America. British husband-and-wife actors Ronald Colman and Benita Hume starred in both versions of the show. Quinn developed the show after he had decided to leave Fibber McGee and Molly in the hands of his protege Phil Leslie. The Halls of Ivy's audition program featured radio veteran Gale Gordon (then co-starring in Our Miss Brooks) and Edna Best in the roles that ultimately went to the Colmans, who'd shown a flair for radio comedy in recurring roles on The Jack Benny Program in the late 1940s.
The Halls of Ivy featured Colman as William Todhunter Hall, the president of small, Midwestern Ivy College, and his wife, Victoria, a former British musical comedy star who sometimes felt the tug of her former profession, and followed their interactions with students, friends and college trustees. Others in the cast included Herbert Butterfield as testy board chairman Clarence Wellman; Willard Waterman (then starring as Harold Peary's successor as The Great Gildersleeve) as board member John Merriweather; and, Elizabeth Patterson and Gloria Gordon as the Halls' maid.
The series ran 110 half-hour radio episodes from January 6, 1950 to June 25, 1952, with Quinn, Jerome Lawrence, and Robert Lee writing most of the scripts and giving free if even more sophisticated play to Quinn's knack for language play, inverted cliches and swift puns (including the show's title and lead characters), a knack he'd shown for years writing Fibber McGee and Molly. Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee continued as a writing team; their best-known play is Inherit the Wind.
Cameron Blake, Walter Brown Newman, Robert Sinclair, and Milton and Barbara Merlin became writers for the program as well. But listeners were surprised to discover that the episode of 27 September 1950, "The Leslie Hoff Painting," a story tackling racial prejudice, was written by Colman himself. The sponsors were Schlitz Brewing Company and then Nabisco. Nat Wolff produced and directed, Henry Russell handled the music and radio veteran Ken Carpenter was the announcer.
Information from WikipediaNOTE: Updated with Version 1.2 MP3s (26-Feb-2011).
From the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. See "Notes" Section below for more information on the OTRR.
Notes
OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHERS GROUP
This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers (OTRR) Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website (www.otrr.org), Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook Group, and Old Time Radio Researchers Group.
It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.
This is the Single Episodes Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This Single Episodes page is provided in case you want to sample the shows. Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.
If you are interested in preserving Old Time Radio (OTR), you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Facebook and Groups.io.
Relax, listen, and enjoy!
OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Maintained Set -- This set contains all known episodes in the best available audio condition with the most accurate dates and titles known to be in general circulation and based on current research at the time of release. Replaces OTRR Certified Accurate and OTRR Certified Complete.
OTRR Non-Maintained Set -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Maintenance process.
Pre-2019 OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that was "Certified Accurate" indicated that all the episodes were properly identified and labeled based on current information but that the series did not contain all known extant episodes.
OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that was "Certified Complete" achieved the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implied that all the files in the series were "Certified Accurate" and also indicated that the series was as complete as possible and included all circulating episodes.
OTRR Non-Certified -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Certification process.
Also, beginning in 2019, the version numbers of our OTRR releases changed format -- instead of v1.0 or v2.1, we are now using a version number that reflects the year and month the set was released. The format used is a two-digit year followed by a two-digit month. For example, "v1906" indicates a set that was released in June 2019, or "v1910" indicates a set released in October 2019.
NOTE: There are no passwords for any of our ZIP files. If you are prompted for a password, before downloading the file again, try unzipping the file into a shorter full folder path name -- for example, unzip to "C:\" instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\your_Windows_ID\some_other_folder\". Sorry, some of our releases contain long folder and file names, which sometimes manifests itself on the Windows platform as prompting for a password for the ZIP file. Or try renaming the ZIP file itself to a shorter name before unzipping.
Reviews
Reviewer:
laikadog01
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favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
February 2, 2020
Subject: It gets better
Subject: It gets better
A master of wordplay was responsible for the excellent scripts. The Colemans are mustard in their parts. Although in the first episodes you begin to wonder if toddy is suffering from some old folks type mental illness when he drifts off remembering when he first met Victoria. There is a certain charm about this series and it is a notch above most others. Highly recommended and highly praised. Intellectually satisfying- if that is what you are looking for.
Reviewer:
caratime2
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favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 1, 2009
Subject: Why Aren't There More?
Subject: Why Aren't There More?
This is one of the series that - now that I've listened to all the episodes - I will really miss!
I wasn't a big listener to radio shows as a child. Since discovering this site, I usually listen to OTR series on my smartphone in the evening to wind down before going to sleep. I've discovered many new and entertaining series along the way, but this light-hearted comedy has to be one of my all-time favorites. Maybe it's the whimsical escape back to simpler times, when character really counted and a pinch of common sense went a long way...?
Thanks for bringing my attention to this wonderful series!
I wasn't a big listener to radio shows as a child. Since discovering this site, I usually listen to OTR series on my smartphone in the evening to wind down before going to sleep. I've discovered many new and entertaining series along the way, but this light-hearted comedy has to be one of my all-time favorites. Maybe it's the whimsical escape back to simpler times, when character really counted and a pinch of common sense went a long way...?
Thanks for bringing my attention to this wonderful series!
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